


Unplanned

by actualcheetah



Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Post Phantom Planet, Rape Recovery, Rape resulting in pregnancy, Rape/Non-con Elements, Sexism, Trans Character, Trans Male Character, Trans Male Danny, Unplanned Pregnancy, Why are all of my fics so heavy???, no reveal, transphobic slurs
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-30
Updated: 2019-10-03
Packaged: 2020-11-08 03:00:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,334
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20828288
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/actualcheetah/pseuds/actualcheetah
Summary: Danny'd been staring at the item in his hands for five minutes, perched on the toilet lid, left leg bouncing up and down in a way that indicated his nerves were getting to him.He was lost in his own head, wondering how he let this happen to himself, when Jazz knocked on the door and told him dinner was done. His eyes popped upwards, the stick in hand forgotten for the moment, before he stood and shoved it into his pocket.He'd worry about it later.





	1. Discovery

Danny'd been staring at the item in his hands for five minutes, perched on the toilet lid, left leg bouncing up and down in a way that indicated his nerves were getting to him.

He was lost in his own head, wondering how he let this happen to himself, when Jazz knocked on the door and told him dinner was done. His eyes popped upwards, the stick in hand forgotten for the moment, before he stood and shoved it into his pocket.

He'd worry about it later.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Later turned out to be the next day, at school.

He'd met Tucker at his house and they'd walked to meet Sam at hers. Then, when they were almost to school, the Box Ghost attacked. Danny dispatched him quickly enough but the three were still late for their first periods. Thankfully, Danny's was a study period with Mr. Beck and he didn't care how late students were so long as they were quiet and didn't bother him.

It was only when he sat down and got stabbed in the leg by hard plastic that he even remembered last night. He woke up late and just grabbed a pair of pants off the ground. Luck would have it that it was this pair of pants.

He'd been sat for less than a minute before he was bolting out the door, ignoring Mr. Beck's calls for him to come back and the stares he got from classmates.

Skidding into the bathroom and slamming a stall shut, Danny barely dropped in time to puke up his meager breakfast of toast into the toilet. His nerves were so shot from what he may or may not learn, he continued to dry heavy for several more minutes.

Propping his arms up on the seat, Danny cradled his throbbing skull in loose hands and spit out the bile that was gathered on his tongue, panting around the nausea that still settled in his throat.

A moment later, he was reaching into his pocket and pulling the plastic stick from his pocket, glaring down at the smiley face. It must've developed after he shoved it into his pocket because, last time he saw it, the little screen was blank. Flipping the stick over, Danny saw the smiley face meant positive and nearly cried, closing his eyes.

He took a moment to compose himself before opening his eyed, pulled down some toilet paper, wrapped the pregnancy test up tightly, and threw it into his backpack.

Standing on shaky legs, he flushed the toilet, left the stall, and stood in front of the mirror, blinking at his reflection. He didn't think he looked any different but when he turned sideways and pulled his shirt tight against his stomach, he thought maybe, just maybe, he could see a bump. But that was probably just his over active mind playing tricks.

He had just dropped his arms to his sides and leaned down to rinse his mouth out when the door slammed open and Dash came waltzing in with two of his football buddies. He wishes Kwan was with them, the jock had a bleeding heart and tended to step in if his team mates got too aggressive. Danny was hoping they'd just ignore him.

No such luck.

Dash smirked when he saw him before whispering over his shoulder at the other two jocks, before walking toward Danny and slinging an arm over his shoulder.

"Hey Fenton, lure anybody into the janitors closet lately?" The blonde goaded, leaning his much larger frame heavily against Danny's smaller body. When he didn't respond, Dash grabbed the back of his neck tightly. "Who was it, huh? Probably Foley. I'd've guessed Manson but we both know you don't have the right parts to make that work and she doesn't peg me as a lesbian. Y'know, because you're just a girl who wishes she was the superior sex." Another pause that failed to get a rise out of Danny passed before Dash growled. "Let's go to the other bathroom, guys, I don't want this tranny trying to look at my dick." They snorted before Dassh shoved Danny roughly into the sink, the trio leaving the bathroom and openly sneering at him.

Danny clenched his jaw, forcing his lip not to wobble. He was used to Dash's ignorance and sexism at this point, his words didn't sting as much as the other boy thought they did, but he hated when Dash brought his friends into the mix. Sam and Tucker had done nothing to the other boy to earn his wrath, other than be friends with him and supportive of Danny's personal choices.

He let himself stand there, glaring at the door, for a few moments before sliding a hand past the waistband of his jeans to his throbbing hipbone. Danny already had a still healing wound in the exact spot he hit on the counter and it took a lot more willpower than he'd let on not to cry out when he slammed into the hard porcelain.

When he pulled his hand back, it was smeared with blood.

"Shit." He ground out and slung his backpack from his shoulders, pulling out the small first aid and dabbing his wound with an antiseptic pad, hissing at the stinging. It took him a few minutes to patch it good enough that it would hold until lunch.

Checking his phone, he flinched when he realized he'd been in the bathroom for nearly thirty minutes. Quickly picking up his stuff and packing it away, he rushed back to class.

The rest of first period as well as second and third went by quickly, no ghosts interrupting his day and, eventually, it was lunch. He met with his best friends at one of the outside tables, mostly because it was getting colder outside and students tended to hide inside the cafeteria when the weather got colder than sixty degrees.

"Danny, what's up with you? We heard that you sat down in first period and then ran off for thirty minutes. Was there a ghost attack or something?" Tucker asked as he unwrapped his packed lunch, a triple meat and cheese. Sam wrinkled her nose at the sandwich but refrained from saying anything, instead turning to look at Danny. Both had mirroring looks of expectancy and he sighed.

"Oh yeah... um..." Danny murmured as he pulled his own lunch out, a ham and cheese sandwich on wheat bread with pickles and, strangely enough, sauerkraut. Normally he hated sauerkraut but recently he had been craving it. Now he knew why, at least. "I just got sick is all. I haven't been eating as much as I should've been and I guess my breakfast didn't agree with me." He said before taking a big bite of his sandwich to keep himself from saying something he shouldn't.

He could tell by their expressions they didn't believe him but he'd have to tell them later, he just couldn't tell them here.

After a lot of hate over his weird sandwich, and a quick patch job on his hip from Tucker, the three fell into easy conversation and soon that morning was forgotten and behind them.

Following lunch, Danny and Tucker had English with Mr. Lancer. Since he spent more than half of his study period in the bathroom and his entire lunch keeping his mind occupied, he completely forgot that he didn't manage to finish his homework. Lancer must've realized this, as he went down the aisles to collect the assignments, because he stopped at Danny's desk and heaved a heavy sigh when he saw the crumpled up and blank piece if paper on the wood top.

Danny slowly handed the paper over and wouldn't meet the teachers eye, gently scratching the chipped and cracked desk as Lancer made his way to the front of the class to start the lesson.

He'd just gotten his notebook and pencil out when a small gasp escaped him, a barely there puff of breath floating from his mouth and evaporating before several heads turned to him, including Tucker and Mr. Lancers. Not even a second later, his hand shot up and he was requesting to be excused. Lancer's expression went through the five stages of grief in about three seconds before he inhaled deeply and nodded. Danny was out of the room before Lancer finished his inhale, texting Tucker to get his homework if he didn't make it back in time.

It turned out to be Johnny, Kitty, and Shadow, who mostly just lead him around the city on a wild goose chase to piss him off. Johnny must've upgraded his bike somehow because he was a lot faster than the last time Danny fought him, or maybe Danny was slowling down, meaning he couldn't exactly catch up enough to capture him in the thermos. And everytime he did catch up, Shadow helped them take unbelievably sharp turns that gave him whiplash just watching.

Long story short, it was a full hour before he caught the trio and made it back to school. Lancers class had about twenty more minutes left, it was one of the only two one and a half periods the school had, but he was tempted to just hang out on the roof until the bell rang. In the end, he decided to return to class, if only so his parents wouldn't get a phone call about him skipping class.

They'd still get one about him ditching then returning, Lancer always made sure to inform them when Danny acted strange in class, but they'd probably strangle him if they heard he'd never returned to the period.

Knocking on the door to the classroom was more nervewracking than it had any right to be. Danny did his best to sneak back to his seat quietly, as to not draw more attention to himself, but Dash just had to stick his leg out at the last second and make him face plant.

Thoroughly embarrassed, Danny ignored the snickers from the preps and jocks and scrambled back to his feet, bolting to his seat, and doodling in his notebook instead of writing anything down. He'd just copy Tuckers later, like he always did.

His next period he had with Sam. It was History with Mrs. Inger, a short older woman who believed things could only be done one way. She had never particularly like Danny, especially not after she learned he was transgender, and had a tendency to give him zeroes whether he turned his work in or not, resulting in him often just not doing any work. She also rarely let him leave class, but she didn't really let anyone leave class so he assumed that he just felt targeted due to how frequently he asked to be excused.

Thankfully nothing happened that period, other than him almost falling asleep multiple times after she turned on a movie and told them to take notes, but Sam quickly elbowed him into the waking work each time.

Last period was Gym with Mrs. Testslaff but also with Sam and Tucker. He was glad that this school year he had at least one class with both of his friends, even if it wasn't English or Study Hall. 

Tetslaff ordered them to do warm up stretches with a partner and just as Danny turned to Tucker and Sam, his go-to partners, she called him over. A hush went over the gym as the teacher left the building, all eyes pinning to him once she turned the corner. He swallowed down his dread and trailed behind the teacher, glancing at his friends before passing through the doorway.

"Daniel Fenton. Can you explain to me why, on your extra credit assignment, you don't have anything written down for the halftime show and the third quarter of the football game two weeks ago?" The burly teacher asked, holding out the stapled together papers.

He felt his lip wobble as he thought of an excuse but couldn't come up with one. Just as he was about to just shrug and forfeit his much needed extra credit, the teacher placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Does it have to do with why Mr. Baxter is missing the halftime show from his own sheet as well?" His eyes widened as he looked up at her. "Yes, I made Dash turn one in as well, but his wasn't extra credit. You don't think I'd let the Quarterback off Scot-free for failing grades, do you? I made him sit the last few games out and write a short summary of what happened at each as punishment for his subpar grade in Math." She glanced inside the gym and sighed, clearly not expecting any words from Danny. "I'll still give you the extra credit, since halftime isn't really part of the football game, but next time I extend an olive branch for your grade, I expect you to do the entire assignment. Understand?"

A meek nod was all he offered his teacher before she dismissed him to go back to class.

He stumbled into the gym, his chest tight with anxiety, the vomit inducing coil of anxiety increasing when he saw his friends giving him a helpless look. Since their gym class had an uneven number of students, one group always had three people. Typically it was Sam, Tucker, and Danny, but sometimes it was Sam, Kwan, and Tucker or Dash, Wes, and Danny, if fate decided it hated Danny.

The reason for his increased anxiety? Kwan, also with a particularly guilty look, was standing with Sam and Tucker while Dash, with a shit bearing smirk, was standing just off to the left and boring jokes into Danny's skull.

A breath he didn't realize he was holding escaped him when Tetslaff grabbed Kwan and Dash, pulling them to the opposite side of the room and letting Danny fill the now vacant spot.

He sent up a silent thank you to who or whatever was looking out for him enough to cause the Coach to do that.

After the whole thing with Mrs. Tetslaff, Gym went by at a snail's pace, the one hour long class dragging in a way that made it feel like it was six instead.

Since they didn't end up doing much in gym, Danny decided against a shower. Due to his ice core, he didn't sweat as badly as he had before activating it with the Yetis of the Far Frozen.

He hung back and waited for Sam and Tucker, though that ended up being a bad choice since Dash, Wes, and Marcus all got done at the same time. He jolted at the déjà by of the situation, so similar to this morning. He dropped his chin and locked his gaze on the floor, holding his breath as the trio walked past him. They each sneered at him and Danny felt his cheeks burn at the obvious leering.

Normally he wouldn't be so submissive, so cowed, by a few bullies but using the knowledge he learned today, he couldn't do more than stand there and try not to break down.

Which was how Sam found him a moment later when she came out in her normal clothes.

"Okay. When Tuck comes out, we're ordering pizza and hiding up in my room. You guys can stay the night, my parents are out of the country til Monday and I know both of your parents don't mind." She said, linking her arm with his and giving him a small smile. "And we can help you with your homework while you tell us what's really wrong with you because I know it's not your diet."

Danny went to argue but she shushed him just as Tucker came out of the locker room, also in his normal clothes. He tilted his head at their linked arms but shrugged and looped his arm around Danny's free elbow, grinning like a doof.

He'd never admit it to anyone besides them but the two of them smiling at him so earnestly made the weight on his shoulders feel lighter.

Three hours later, two battles with ghosts, and a disappointed call from his parents about his attendance, they're sitting in a triangle on Sam's bedroom floor, surrounded by multiple textbooks, worksheets, and pizza boxes, laughing at something Sam said that has nothing to do with the items around them.

After a few moments to get their breath back and to wipe tears from their eyes, the ice was broken.

"Alright Danny. We've done some homework and had some dinner. What's _really_ been bothering you all day?" Tucker said, wiping his mouth with a napkin as he reached for another slice of meat lovers delight.

Danny felt his smile fade slowly until it was a grim line before sitting up from where he'd plopped backwards after laughing and turning around, grabbing his backpack to dig the toilet paper wrapped item out from his bag. He stared at it for a moment, before clenching his jaw and handing it over. As Tucker lifted an eyebrow and started unwrapping it, Danny shifted so his knees were tucked under his chin.

"Is this what I think it is, dude? Is it Jazz's? Your mom's?" Tucker asked, handing it to Sam who's eyes widened almost comically. When Danny didn't reply, other than dropping his eyes to stare at a stain on his knee, Sam looked at Tucker until his eyes matched hers. "I-its yours? When'd it happen? With _who_?" 

Sam slapped him in the arm and hissed out a soft, "Tucker, can't you be any more sensitive?" before resting a hand on Danny's knee. "Do your parents know?" A head shake. "Jazz?" Another shake. "The father?" That caused Danny's head to snap up and whip his head back and forth so violently, he felt like it would snap off. "I hate to ask but, your reaction makes me nervous... Was it... consensual?" Danny's eyes welled up so quickly he had to bury his face in his knees to hide them, shaking his head as he went. "Oh gosh, Danny." She murmured as she slid closer and settled her arm over his shoulders, Tucker following suit.

A sob wracked his body so hard, his lungs rattled and his shoulders shook. They sat there for what felt like hours until his sobbing softened enough for him to speak.

"You know that football game I had to write a summary about for Tetslaff a few weeks ago?" He asked, though he knew they remembered. He'd been on snack duty and had been gone for nearly forty minutes, returning with no food and didn't speak the rest of the game no matter what they did.

They must've realized what he was referencing because their eyes widened once more before offering hesitant nods. "Yeah that's when it happened. I went to the bathroom before ordering our food, I didn't want to walk back to the stands then walk all the way back to the entrance so I figured going first was the better option. I was in the bathroom and was finishing up washing my hands when he came in and pinned me to the wall. Should've fought back or phased through the wall but I froze.

"I froze and he took advantage of that. He didn't get far before I came back to my senses but when he realized I wasn't just standing there and being complacent, he slammed my head into the wall a couple times. By the time my head cleared up, I was begging, _pleading_ for him to let me go. But he didn't." Danny looked over when he heard a choked sob and felt burning tears cascade down his cheeks at the sight of his best friends openly crying with matching expressions of horror.

"Oh my God. I'm gonna rip the dick off the piece of shit who thought he could knock you around, rape you, and get you pregnant! Hes a sick son of a bitch." Sam snarled. "Who the hell is this piece of shit, Danny?"

"...It's Dash..."


	2. The Happening

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fair bit of warning, the beginning of this chapter has the flashback to when Danny was attacked by Dash.
> 
> Please read with caution and be safe!
> 
> Also, idk what is with the title of this chapter, I couldn't think of anything relevant.

_"Okay. Halftime. If I'm quick, I can get back before the band even makes it onto the field." Danny said while standing, talking over the loud buzzer that indicated the end if the second quarter. "I'll be right back, guys. I gotta go to the bathroom."_

_"Wait! Will you get me something from the concession stand?" Before Danny could pipe up and say he didn't have any cash on him, Tucker whipped his wallet out. "I want three chili dogs with extra chili and cheese, and an extra large Coke, Dan-the-Man!" He said as he handed over a twenty dollar bill. Danny stared down at the bill with pursed lips before looking back to his friend, slowly holding his hand out palm up._

_"Get me a thing of nachos with jalapenos and a large Cherry Root Berry. Make sure you get yourself something, too, Danny." Sam added, slapping a fifty into his hand and shushed him before he could even open his mouth to speak. "You didn't tell your parents you were gonna be at the game tonight, so you don't have money. Don't lie. Just bring back the change and we'll call it good."_

_"And why am I being sent on snack detail? Guys, I have extra credit to write and Coach T wants the Halftime show to be included." Danny protested, making sure to scoot to the side so that he wasn't standing in anyone's way. "I was just gonna run to the bathroom real quick so I didn't explode."_

_"I heard Paulina's working the concession stand, since the Cheerleaders haven't gotten their winter uniform in and it's "too cold" for the Cheerleaders skimpy booty skirts." Sam said, rolling her eyes. If Danny was honest, he kind of agreed with Sam on that. It was barely seventy degrees, and he saw Paulina wearing shorts shorter than the Cheerleader skirts earlier in the day. "Come on Danny. You're going in that direction already and it'll only take a few extra minutes. We'll fill you in on what happens, promise!"_

_Danny kept his stoic expression for a moment longer before cracking a grin. "Fine. I'll bring you guys your food, calm down." He said, huffing lightly. Truth be told, he would've done it before Sam mentioned Paulina working the concession stand._

_Carefully picking his way down the bleachers, because they just had to sit at nearly the tippy top corner, minus a few rows, Danny stuffed his hands in his pockets and walked the short distance to the entrance of the football field, where the bathrooms were located._

_The boy quickly did his business and stepped out of the stall, walking up to the sink to wash his hands._

_The door to the bathrooms opened, filtering in loud trumpets and drums from the marching band that muffled the footsteps of whoever came in behind him, before swinging shut and cutting the outside noise to a dull thumping that reminded him of a heartbeat._

_The hairs in the back of his neck and his forearms stood on end, his stomach clenching uncomfortably and in a way that made it hard to breathe, when he felt someone looking at him. Glancing up at his reflection, Danny stifled a groan at seeing Dash standing awkwardly by the door and staring at him with a look that was three parts pure disgust and one part curious. _

_Danny feared that one part more than he feared his sealed away future self._

_"Look Dash, I'm almost done washing my hands and then the bathroom will be "freak free", as you like to put it." He said, looking back down to his almost completely soapless hands and trying to control his quivering breaths. He barely registered in his head that Dash wasn't wearing a uniform, and wasn't coated in a layer of grime that the football players tended to have on them constantly._

_The deadbolt slamming into place and footsteps echo in the small room and suddenly Danny feels a body behind him, like_ right there, pressing against him _behind him._

_Whipping around, Danny opened his mouth to question the stockier boy, because this was not okay, but was shoved into the wall next to the sink hard enough his head bounced off the wall. Not enough to disorient him but it still hurt._

_When he realized he was literally stuck in a corner, trapped like a rabbit between the paws of a lion (and wouldn't Skulker just love the idea of him calling himself prey), he froze. Quite literally, his body wouldn't budge, no matter how hard he screamed at it._

_He only came back to his senses when he feels a body way too close to his own and a hand cup his crotch._ Hard.

_A yelp is pulled from his throat before he gives a hard shove of his own to Dash's chest, pushing the jock off of him long enough for Danny to feel like he accomplished something before the other boy has a shark toothed smile and is on him again. He can't even blink before his face is in Dash's meaty hand and the back of his skull is being cracked once, twice, three times against the concrete brick that lines the inside of the bathrooms._

_That's enough to daze Danny, to the point that he's pretty sure he loses time. Because one second his eyes are open and staring past a blurry and spinning Dash and the next, Danny feels his leg being hoisted and then something hard and painful stabbing into him. It sends his mind into overdrive and he reaches out, begging for him to stop while he does, to try and claw at Dashs face._

_Danny has always had shorter arms, though, so he's not surprised when his frantic clawing catches nothing aside from his chest through the thin fabric of a shirt, especially since his eyes are squeezed shut in hopes of stopping the burning tears he can feel building up under his eyelids. His head earns another crack against the wall for his flailing and soon, he feels hips pressed to his own._

_Dash has shifted one hand from where it was resting against the wall and snatches Danny's hands while he's discombobulated, pinning them above both their heads in a way that has Danny struggling to his tiptoes to keep his limbs from being torn off. He feels something cascade down his legs and he knows, without a shadow of a doubt, that its blood from being entered so roughly, without any stimulant, and because it's also his first time._

_"D-Dash. Please, stop. You don't, God, you don't have to_ do this _. Please just-just let me go and I won't tell anyone about this, I swear, I SWEAR!" Danny cries, cracking open an eye to peak at the older boy. His vision is swimming but hes not sure if its from the numerous hits to his head or the tears._

_"Why would I stop? Your cries," Dash tugs on Danny's arms and elicits a whimper from him. "They're almost better than your tight little cunt. God. If I knew you'd be begging like that, I would've done this sooner." He groans as he pulls out and Danny thinks, wishes, hopes, this is over but that's dashed (the irony) when the other gives a slow thrust back in. "You'd probably make a good toy for the football team to blow off steam with after games." He says these words as if they're a compliment while he pulls out._

_"Fuck! No, please Dash, STOP. I don't want this! I don't, please get off! Stop, stop, stop!" Danny is openly crying now, throwing his head back and wiggling his body to try and get some leverage as Dash pushes back into him but that just makes Dash more excited, apparently, because he leans in and inhales against Danny's neck. He leans away as much as he can but the other follows him, claiming he likes the fear that Danny is showing._

_He drops Danny's leg and reaches to the spot where they're joint, swiping his fingers through the dark red liquid and bringing it up to Danny's eye level. "Why are you wet if you dont want this?" He asks before grabbing Danny's neck tight enough that, although he doesn't need to breathe, has him wheezing._

_The next fifteen minutes are torturous. Dash is holding his wrists so tightly he thinks they might've snapped if he wasn't made of tougher stuff than just bones. He also nips at Danny's skin in a way that someone might bite their lover but all Danny can equate it to is a crocodile ripping off pieces of flesh, ignoring his cries and pleads to be let go even though it is futile at this point._

_Before long, Dash is slamming into him hard, moaning out while he does. His hips stutter the entire time, rolling into his own hips that cause bruises on the small of his back when he hits the wall, but all Danny can focus on is the burning hot feeling he has deep in his gut that he can't explain. He's finally released, dropped is the better term because once Danny has no hands keeping him up, he's dropping to the floor like a cum rag. _

_He sits there, frozen, mortified, shaking, while Dash tucks himself back into his pants and calls out that they should do that again sometime before smirking at him and exiting the bathroom. The blare of trumpets and the beat of drums reaches his ears until the door shuts, and when it does, Danny cries. He cries silently, limping his way to the toilet stall with his pants still hooked around his ankle and drops to the floor, shutting the door and curling up to cry into his knees._

_He doesn't pick himself up from the ground until he's certain he can make it through the last half of the game without breaking down._

_When he gets back to the stands, he hands his friends their money back and resolutely stares off into the distance, assignment forgotten for the moment. Hes glad he wore a hoodie to the game because it covers his neck and his wrists._

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Sam! You can't go to Dash's house and kill him! If anyone is going over there, it should be Danny!" Tucker shouts as he chases after the raven haired girl who is storming through her house looking for a weapon. That causes her to whip around and jab a finger into Tuckers chest. She can't say what's on her mind, though, because her grandmother rolls into the kitchen at that moment.

"What's going on, dear? I heard an awful lot of shouting, I hope everything is okay?" Bless her grandmother. Seeing the calm that her fathers mother brings with her cools Sam's anger, but only barely. 

"Its nothing Gran. Go back to your "knitting group"." Sam says, knowing that the scooter bound woman is playing poker in the den and not actually knitting. The older woman gives her a smile, a twinkle lighting up her eye, and suddenly, Sam can't find the previous buring inferno she felt thirty seconds prior. Yes, she's still mad. No, she's not letting Dash get away with this. But Tucker is right, Danny should be the one to deal with Dash.

"Oh my god! Danny!" They both shout when they realize the blue eyed boy didn't follow them downstairs. They bolt up the steps, two at a time, but Danny is gone. His stuff is still there but his body is missing.

"Do you think he went home? Oh god, what if he went to confront Dash about this!?" Tufker cried, clutching his beret cover head with panicked eyes that are honestly starting to make her panic.

"No way he'd go after that pinhead by himself. He probably went home, but we have to find him." She said before grabbing Tuckers arm and dragging him back downstairs.

It's been fully dark outside for a few hours, so Sam takes a few minutes to try to fine two flashlights that actually _work_ in her house (unlike a certain half ghost, her and Tucker can't see in the dark), but that's not saying much because the sun goes down at like five in the northern states during fall. They decide not to split up, just in case. They both want to be there for Danny when they find him and if that means spending twice as long outside in what is now close to forty degree weather, then so be it.

They've been looking for close to three hours when Tucker suggests the mall, and she knows its only offers it because its warm and his teeth are chattering, but it's on the other side of town so Sam suggests the park first.

Thank god for her because Danny just so happens to be at the park.

He's alone, thankfully, and not in ghost form with his back to them, but he's visibly shaking, despite his ice core. The closer they get, the better Sam can hear sniffling and crying. When Sam places a hand on his shoulders, he tenses before looking over his shoulder at them.

"Sorry I ran off. It just became too much, that had been the first time I'd talked about it at all and it hit me harder than I thought it would. Needed to get away." He mumbled, turning to look straight forward again. He tucked his face into the crook of his elbow and Sam knew it was to hide his tear stained cheeks.

Sam feels like a truck has just ran her over. Danny had just finished telling them he was raped and impregnated by their demonic classmate and he thinks he has to apologize to them. "No, Danny. You did nothing wrong. There is absolutely no reason to be sorry. If anything," She paused and glanced at Tucker before sitting. "I should be apologizing to you. I just took off, so intent on getting revenge for you." She drops her hand from his shoulder and thread she fingers together, twiddling her thumbs. "I'm, Jesus, I'm so sorry." 

"I'm sorry too, man. I shouldn't have run off after Sam. She would've realized what she was doing once she got to Dash's house and come back." Tucker said, sitting on Dannys other side. Sam reached around to slap him but didn't comment because he was probably right.

They sat for a few minutes, or maybe it was a few hours, before Danny sighed and stood, arms wrapped around his middle. Sam and Tucker had just gotten to their feet when they heard the _ whoop whoop_ of a cop car pulling up behind them followed by a shutting door. The trio turned around and let out small breaths of relief at seeing Valerie's dad, Damon Gray, walking away from his cruiser.

After he lost his job at Axion Labs, he took up a position at the police department.

"Hey kids. Got a concerned call that you were out here after dark and without any warm clothes on. What's going on?" Officer Gray spoke as he walked up to them, halting when he was a few feet away.

"Oh hi Officer Gray." Sam said, rubbing her palms over her bare upper arms and suddenly wishes she had brought a jacket or a shawl. "We were just feeling cooped up at my house and I guess we lost track of the time. Sorry to make you drive all the way out here." She looked over at her friends, both of which were staring at the ground guiltily.

Thankfully, Officer Gray perceived the guilt as feeling bad about him catching them out ao late and not because they were lying.

"Alright. Well, curfew is in ten minutes so let me drive you home. You're all staying at Sam's house, right?" The man said before waving them back to his car. It was clear he wouldn't let them walk on their own so the three begrudgenly piled into the back of the cruiser.

The drive back was uncomfortable to say the least.

Officer Gray kept glancing at them through the rearview mirror, his expression that of a worried father and not a police officer. He'd try and pass the time by asking questions but they'd either give unenthusiastic answers or just not reply. They were nearly to Sam's house when he asked a question that made Danny stiffen, the temperature of the cab chilling a good five degrees.

"Danny. Are you okay?" He put the car into park when they got to a stop sign and turned around to look at the dark haired teen in the middle seat. "You've got bloodshot eyes and it looks like you've been trying to to break down since you got into the vehicle." When the questioned boy just looked down, Officer Gray just sighed and turned back around before putting it back into drive.

They stopped in front of Sam's house and the cop sighed once more, meeting Danny's eyes in the mirror. "If you're in trouble, Danny, just know you can talk to me. Okay? I like you, Valerie says only good things about you." A pause. "Alright. You kids be safe and try not to get into anymore trouble." The back doors clicked, indicating they were unlocked, and Sam and Tucker both opened their doors, sliding out. Danny followed close behind Sam before leaning over and knocking the driver side window.

Sam had already gone to stand on the sidewalk with Tucker so she didn't hear what Danny said to the man but when he joined them, a small smile was on his face.

She didn't ask why he what they talked about and neither did Tucker, and Danny didn't offer an explanation. What she does know is that she was happy to see him smiling.


End file.
